Articles - Page 2 of 11 - Mary Kienstra

Understanding fractions is so much easier when kids can touch the models. Pattern blocks are making fractions real. They are the perfect models just for that. Today I introduced fractions to my third graders with pattern blocks. And they got it. We started with thinking that the yellow hexagon represents one. From there we investigated what the other […]
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Most concepts are just more easily understood when they are made more concrete. Clothesline math is the concrete representation of percents that helps students understand. As my students shared their thinking during one of our clothesline math lessons, I wondered why it took me so long to try this. Now my students are hanging on to […]
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So many teaching strategies come and go. There’s always a new idea or the latest gimmick to engage kids in learning. We have endless lists of buzz words and terms that describe various aspects of teaching and learning. Of all the strategies I’ve employed, the one that engages my students the most consistently is two words: […]
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It is all that. Breakout is the best new gimmick in student engagement. Give a group a series of locks and puzzles and watch them go to work problem solving as a team. My class of 4th and 5th graders recently read The BFG as part of the Global Read Aloud 2016. (See my post about […]
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The first few minutes of class are the most important for learning. This is the time to hook your students and get them in the MATH frame of mind. 24 Cards are the just the thing to draw them in. Students’ math talk with 24 cards shows their understanding and gives them the opportunity to […]
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I have to thank Pernille Ripp and the Global Read Aloud crew for the inspiration! One of the picks for this year was The BFG, one of our curricular novels. That was a perfect fit! Find out more about The Global Read Aloud here. It’s fabulous! My students and I embarked on our read aloud […]
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Two novels have changed everything in my class this year. We started the year reading Because of Mr. Terupt (by Rob Buyea) and Fish in a Tree (by Lynda Hunt Mulally) as a way to answer the question, “What does the way you treat people tell others about you?” My students analyzed these texts and came up […]
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Any time a lesson can involve movement, it is more memorable than a passive listening experience. So when I saw an example of hopscotch with the order of operations, I created it in my classroom immediately. I knew my students would love to hop for the order of operations. The biggest misconception with the order […]
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In the beginning of the school year, the main focus iin my classroom is “getting to know you.” I’ve done all the regular things that teachers do, but this year, I tried something different. In the spirit of the picture book, Who is Melvin Bubble? students introduced themselves to the class from the perspective of someone […]
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This is the time when teachers make those summer resolutions. They’re not unlike New Year Resolutions, except they have a summer spin. Every summer my list includes read more, exercise more, and organize my house. The actual projects might vary, but the ideas are the same every summer. Working on my “exercise more” resolution, I realized that […]
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